It only makes sense when you think about it. Once we reach some service quality level, no one would want to carry more devices if they don’t have to.
In a not that distant future, we’ll see the portable navigation device (PND) makers like TomTom and Garmin either dying or changing. Both companies are obviously already working on the latter, hence you can get their software for all the major smartphone platforms. However, by integrating GPS receivers in more models in the future – it’s the handset makers, and the end users, which will benefit the most.
According to Telematics Research Group, the worldwide portable navigation market is set to grow from 50 million units in 2007 to more than 500 million units in 2015. TRG estimates 30M dedicated PNDs were sold last year and about 20M navigation-enabled mobile phones for a total of 50M units. Both segments will grow rapidly over the next few years but navigation-enabled mobile phones will start outselling dedicated PNDs next year… Full release is available from here (PDF).